Street Naming Contest

The City of Cincinnati Department of Transportation & Engineering (DOTE) has offered to have Clifton suggest a name for the connector road between Central Parkway and Hopple Street. See the photo below. The road is indicated by a blue line running between two blue circles. CTM Trustees are holding a naming contest to provide a suggested name to City DOTE. Each entry must list the suggested street name and why it is a good name including any significance. Entry form is below the picture for your use.

[contact-form-7 id=”2806″ title=”Contact form 1″]

[contact-form-7 id=”3764″ title=”Street Naming Contest Entry”]

Police District 5 HQ Site Selection

The most recent public meeting held by the City Planning & Public Services Departments regarding the site selection for the new District 5 Police HQ was on Thursday, May 24.  This meeting reviewed the process by which the 37 possible site were narrowed to 9 possible sites.  Of the 9 possible sites, 4 sites were noted to have met the highest number of the selection criteria.

These 4 sites are as follows:

  • Central Parkway
  • Dane & Knowlton
  • Hamilton Avenue
  • Kahns-Rhinegeist

The next steps in the site selection process are as follows:

  • Chief of Police and City administration take public input into consideration and make site recommendation to City Manager & Council.
  • Begin property acquisition (Summer 2018)

Following site selection, the City will also form a Community Advisory Group to provide input to the design of the building including art and a public space to uniquely represent all 8 neighborhoods in Police District 5.   The Advisory group will have approximately one meeting a month.  CTM Trustees are hopeful that some Clifton residents will join this Advisory Group.

Please click here to view the full presentation that was given on May 24.  Your CTM Trustees remain open to additional feedback on this process.  Please keep in mind that site selection process is drawing to an end very soon.

 

Entering Year 4 of the Clifton Deer Project

From the CliftonDeer.org Team:

With the sterilization of eight more does last Fall, year 3 of field operations brought the total number of treated deer to 59, or 91% of our total adult female deer population.  Based on field camera counts, the herd within our study area has shrunk by 19% since we started.  This rate of reduction is steady and contrasts sharply with the 30% increase reported by the Parks in the year before we started.  A more detailed Year 3 Field Operations Report can be found on our website here.

Our goal this Fall is to reach 95% by capturing the most elusive does over a series of weekend operations.  In addition to the wile ones who browse happily at our bait sites until just before the darter arrives (never question the intelligence of these critters), we will also be seeking out the “borderland deer” whose territory overlaps with but extends beyond the study area. This should result in more of the benefits of the deer program reaching the streets within the study area closest to Clifton and Ludlow Avenues.

We are happy to report the Ohio Department of Natural Resources has renewed our research permit to continue operations for another two years.  While the numbers from this study, and others around the country, are already showing clear indications sterilization can effectively reduce deer populations in open urban settings, another two years of data will be important to reaching any firm conclusions that might support requests to States for permission to use fertility control as an ongoing urban deer population management tool.

One component of the study, and a critical requirement for the long term viability of sterilization as a management alternative, is making it cost effective.  Obviously, this means comparing sterilization’s effectiveness in reducing deer overabundance to other methods, but it also means finding economically viable ways for communities to implement programs like this one.  To that end, Clifton Deer is in it’s second year of recruiting and training local volunteer veterinary surgeons and a darter-capture specialist.  Transitioning from reliance on expensive out-of-town experts to assumption of these duties by local professionals and volunteers could greatly improve the cost side of the cost effectiveness calculation.

Finally, we are proud to report that as one of the few, and maybe the only citizen initiated and managed fertility control program in the country, CliftonDeer.org was invited by the international Botstiber Institute for Wildlife Fertility Control to present at a national conference on deer fertility control in New York on May 2nd.  The success of the Clifton project has drawn the attention of experts from around the country.  A video of that conference should soon be available on the Botstiber website at https://www.wildlifefertilitycontrol.org/.

As always, we are grateful for the support of our Clifton neighbors who donate and volunteer their yards and time to make this project possible.  Fundraising for the Fall ’18 operations has begun and your help is needed.  Please consider a tax deductible donation through one of the methods explained on our website at http://cliftondeer.org/donations/.

Have you met Doe #32? Still looking healthy and happy at almost 9 years of age, this gentle doe makes her home in the woods and yards around Mt. Storm Park and is often seen with her BFF, 5 year old Doe #7. Both were sterilized during our December 2015 field operations. (Photo Credit: Sally Skillman)

Bob Rack, co-founder of CliftonDeer.org, giving Clifton international exposure at the Botstiber Institute for Wildlife Fertility Control conference in NYC earlier this month.

 

The CliftonDeer.org Team

2018 House Tour Reveal – Herbert A. Faber House

Our second reveal for the 2018 Clifton House Tour is the Herbert A. Faber House, built in 1923.

Built in 1923 for one of the founders of Cincinnati’s own Formica Company, Herbert Alfred Faber, this charming stone house has the feeling of an enlarged English “Cotswold Cottage,” with a low recessed entry alluding to its supposed humble origin, despite considerable actual size. The rough, uneven, deliberately crude stonework is laid with thick, recessed concrete mortar, further perpetuating this pseudo-unassuming effect, all of which lies blanketed under a projecting, undulating roofline and hooded dormers recalling thatched roofs of the English countryside. An impressive chimney-stack accented with slanted stones, pierced by diminutive windows, faces the street, and curved walls at the opposite end of the house lead down to the driveway and garage on the lower level. The Faber residence hugs the hilltop it is perched on, at the summit of a promontory overlooking the wooded ravine’s naturalized setting. While the front façade has few, small windows facing the lane, the house opens to its picturesque location the farther back from the front one gets, with many windows and a projecting viewing-terrace in the rear (its fine new iron railing appears to be inspired by Japanese sword-guards used by Charles R. McIntosh at the Glasgow School of Art in Scotland).

The above is just a small portion of what is written in the tour book. Learn more about this home on the Clifton House Tour.

Howell Avenue Development Visioning Report

Background
In spring 2017, the Clifton neighborhood approached the Cincinnati Department of City Planning to assist with facilitating a visioning meeting for a proposed development on Howell Avenue between Ormond and Clifton Avenues. City Planning staff met with Clifton Town Meeting (CTM) representatives and the Gaslight Property development team on a few occasions over the summer and fall of 2017 to discuss the potential project and the visioning meeting.

There are no sketches for this development as of yet, however the development team has proposed that the site will contain approximately 130 apartments, 7,000 square feet of retail space, and 300 parking spaces in a parking garage (half of which would be designated as public parking spaces).

The site is a combination of Commercial Neighborhood-Pedestrian (CN-P) zoning and Single-Family Residential (SF-4) zoning. As such, a zone change would be required for the site and a request for a Planned Development would be the most appropriate zoning given the parameters of the project. Once the development team submits their concept plan and a zone
change request, it would go through a public process that lasts about 4 to 6 months. If the zone change and concept plan were approved, the development team also has to submit a Final Development Plan for the project which requires further public input and review and typically lasts 2 to 3 months long.

Purpose of the Meeting
The purpose of the visioning meeting was to allow everyone an opportunity to discuss their ideas and have open conversations with the development team about their concerns and top priorities for the Howell Avenue Development site before an official zone change and concept plan request is made to the City of Cincinnati.

Summary of the Meeting
On November 8, 2017, Clifton Town Meeting, the Cincinnati Department of City Planning, and Gaslight Property hosted the Howell Avenue Development Visioning Meeting at the Clifton
Recreation Center. 50 people attended the meeting aside from City staff.

The evening began with a brief presentation about the purpose of the meeting, the background of the project, and examples of mixed use development. When shown the examples of mixed use development, attendees were asked to gauge their reactions to the images they were shown, with the emphasis that they may like or not like what they see and to begin to think about their top priorities for the breakout exercises.

After the presentation, attendees were instructed to break out into four groups to participate in the following exercises:
Round Robin and Group Dot Exercise
The facilitator (City Planner) introduced four themes to the group: (1) the use of the building, (2) architectural details/materials of the building, (3) the Clifton Plaza, and (4) landscaping/parking. Each person wrote down their top ideas or concerns on sticky notes, put them on the group theme, and then talked about their idea with the group. After all of the themes were completed, participants were asked to vote within their own group on the top priorities (they were allowed 6 votes total to spread around as they wished among the four themes).

Report Out
Once voting was completed within each group, the facilitators reported out to the entire room and named the top priorities from their group.

Entire Room Dot Exercise
The top priorities from the groups were then available to be voted on by everyone (6 votes per person).

Results from the Meeting
The top priorities from the meeting after all of the voting took place were the following (in order of the most votes):
1. Incorporate CCAC with the development and the Clifton Plaza
2. Design the development to look like the neighborhood
3. Seek out longer term residents
4. Incorporate public art with the Clifton Plaza
5. Set back the building from the street and plant trees on Howell Avenue
6. Put as much of the garage as underground as possible
7. Expand Clifton Plaza
8. Provide for larger apartments (3-4 bedrooms and 2,000+ square feet)
9. LEED Certified
10. Step down the building to the street
11. Incorporate green space along Howell Avenue
12. Minimize parking and traffic on nearby streets
13. Design the development to incorporate both modern and traditional architectural elements
14. Include a rooftop vegetable garden
All of the comments from the group discussions, the number of votes for each item, and the
voting for the top priorities are attached to this summary. Another chart (included with this report) was created that shows comments and recommendations that were made in two or more groups, but perhaps didn’t get enough votes to be included as top priorities for the whole room. Notable ideas that were named in every one of the four groups included the following:
1. Incorporate the CCAC with the development and the Clifton Plaza
2. Provide a functional rooftop (ideas for rooftop uses include: bar, restaurant, terrace, and garden)
3. Provide for larger apartments (3-4 bedrooms with 2,000 + square feet)
4. Incorporate a restaurant with outdoor dining
5. Enhance the lighting and build a water feature at Clifton Plaza
6. Install bike storage (indoors and outdoors) and keep the Red Bikes nearby
7. Conceal the parking garage with greenery or a living wall
8. Design the building with traditional, Tudor architecture in mind as well as use quality materials like brick

Results from the Survey
An online survey was also released on November 16th, 2017 in order to get additional feedback from people who were unable to attend the November 8th meeting. This survey was also printed and copies were left at the Clifton Recreation Center for people to fill out. After the survey closed on November 30th, there were 282 total respondents. Based on their feedback, the top priorities were the following (in order of the most votes):
1. Design the development to fit in/ look like the neighborhood
2. Put as much of the garage underground as possible
3. Encourage longer term residents
4. Set back the building from the street on Howell Avenue and plant streets
5. Incorporate the CCAC with the development and the Clifton Plaza
Other common ideas that were named in the survey included the following:
1. Make parking a priority on the site to increase public parking for the area
2. Incorporate condos as part of the project
3. Limit the height of the building / build within the context of the neighborhood

Click here to review the full report including a copy of the survey results and all of the comments.